Here’s why experienced dealmaker Dave Hall joined the board of Viking Mines

Veteran mining professional Dave Hall has joined the board of explorer Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) as non-exec director. Hall explains what attracted him to the gold explorer and its assets.

Hall has 35 years mining sector experience, most recently with major gold mining companies Newmont and Northern Star (ASX:NST).

He has been directly involved with transactions of major gold deposits, notably Jundee and KCGM in WA, and is very familiar within the jurisdiction within which Viking is focussed.

Through his appointment to the company as a Non-Executive Director, Mr Hall brings a wealth of strong gold industry knowledge in the Australian, SE Asian, African and European regions to Viking and “provides additional complimentary skills to support the direction and contribute to the development of the strategy of the Company”

Hall explains what attracted him to Viking and its assets — including the ‘First Hit’ gold mine in WA, where the company recently pulled up visible gold underneath the historical workings.

What’s your background?

“My early industry background was in underground mine geology, predominantly in gold for the first 20 or so years at various operations around Australia for ACM, Normandy and Newmont” Hall says.

“Highlights during that time included development of the Pajingo operation and managing the geology department at Jundee when the Westside system was discovered, which subsequently evolved into a deposit size totalling 2.5Mozs averaging ~11g/t head grade.

After completing a Master of Mineral Economics, I then transitioned into Newmont’s corporate development department in the Australian region, initially looking at merger and acquisition opportunities in the Australasian region, and in later years assisting with asset sales and other business development activities. Over the last three years the role expanded to undertook M&A assessments in the African/European region.

After leaving Newmont mid last year, I did a small underground geology contract job with Westgold Resources at their Fortnum gold operation for a few months, which was enjoyable working back in a mining operation again.

Commencing in February this year, I started a role within Northern Star’s Business Development team, and was pleased to be involved in the sale of Northern Star’s Kundana operations to Evolution which was announced recently.

What do you like about Viking? Is it the geology or the deal making potential?

“A bit of both. I’m interested in the asset itself, and how we can grow the asset base,” Hall says.

“I like those older historical high grade mines, like Viking’s ‘First Hit’ project in the goldfields, that haven’t really been assessed using modern day exploration techniques for the last 20-odd years.

The old Bellevue mine was in a similar position, prior to Bellevue Gold commencing modern day exploration.

Since January 2017 Bellevue’s share price has rocketed from 2.5c to +99c per share, driven by some unbelievable drilling success at its historic WA project.]

“Then there is the corporate development side and how I can assist Viking, in identifying and adding to their land position and asset base. My experience with junior exploration joint ventures/property negotiations , both on the buy and sell side will be beneficial here” Hall says.

“I think I could add value there for Viking and am looking forward to working closely with Julian and the rest of the Viking team on existing and future opportunities.

This article was developed in collaboration with Viking Mines, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.